Papers of Thomas T. Eckert, 1862-1877, (1862-1867 )

ArchivalResource

Papers of Thomas T. Eckert, 1862-1877, (1862-1867 )

Archive of Eckert's professional papers that he accumulated from 1862 to 1877; the bulk of the collection covers his Civil War service. The collection includes: 14 ledgers of telegrams received by the War Department (1862, Feb. 2 00 1867, Aug. 1); 7 ledgers of ciphered telegrams sent from Washington (1862, Feb. 1 -- 1867, July 30); 1 ledger of ciphered communications of the Army of the Potomac (1862, Aug. 29- 1863, Apr. 28); 4 ledgers of telegraphic communications of the Union post at Fortress Monroe, Va. (1863, Aug. 29 - Apr. 6, 1865), and 2 ledgers of messages that the special investigating agent Charles A. Dana sent from Chattanooga and Knoxville (1863, Sept. 10- 1864, Aug. 2). Also included are 8 letterpress books of Thomas T. Eckert's own correspondence, supply orders for the Military Telegraph, a ledger of Jay Gould's American Union Telegraph, and cipher code books with different versions of the ciphers in use by various operators. The ledgers of the United States Military Telegraph cover the campaing of the Union armies in the Eastern and Western theaters, intelligence and covert operations, the organization transportation, communications, hospitals, provision of the troops and other aspects of the logistics; personnel issues; fugitive slaves The ledgers contain the initial text of telegraphic messages, as they were transmitted by the operators and before they were copied on loose sheets papers to be delivered to the addressee. Some of the sent messages appear to have been dictated rather than drafted in writing. The sent messages are ciphered; the received telegrams are mostly decoded. Some telegrams are followed by brief messages that operators sent to each other. The letterpress books contain Eckert's own telegrams received between Mar. 30, 1864 and Apr. 7, 1860 and sent between June 4, 1865 and Aug. 7, 1866. Subjects inlude the construction, repair, and maintenance of the Union telegraph lines; transportation; relationship with the press, including with the agents of Reuters and Associated Press, intelligence and covert operations in 1864-1865, the elections of 1864, etc. Correspondents include Abraham Lincoln, Edwin M. Stanton, Anson Stager, Thomas A. Scott, Charles A. Dana, George B. McClellan, Ulysses S. Grant, Henry W. Halleck, William T. Sherman, John A. Dix, Alan Pinkerton, and others.

76 ledgers.

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 8209202

Related Entities

There are 16 Entities related to this resource.

Dix, John Adams, 1798-1879

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6xx5bk5 (person)

Dix was born in Boscawen, New Hampshire on July 24 1798, the son of Timothy Dix and Abigail Wilkins, and brother of composer Marion Dix Sullivan. He was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy, and joined the US Army as an ensign in May 1813, serving under his father until the latter's death a few months later. He attained the rank of captain in August 1825 and resigned from the Army in December 1828. In 1826, Dix married Catherine Morgan, the adopted daughter of Congressman John J. Morgan, who g...

Grant, Ulysses Simpson, 1822-1885

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6r60gqx (person)

Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant, April 27, 1822, Point Pleasant, Ohio-died July 23, 1885, Wilton, New York) was the 18th president of the United States, serving from 1869 to 1877. As president, Grant was an effective civil rights executive who worked with the Radical Republicans during Reconstruction to protect African Americans, created the Justice Department, and reestablish the public credit. Promoted lieutenant-general, in 1864, Grant led the Union Army in winning the American Civ...

Dana, Charles A. (Charles Anderson), 1819-1897

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6xj0gmk (person)

Charles Anderson Dana (August 8, 1819 – October 17, 1897) was an American journalist, author, and senior government official. He was a top aide to Horace Greeley as the managing editor of the powerful Republican newspaper New-York Tribune until 1862. During the American Civil War, he served as Assistant Secretary of War, playing especially the role of the liaison between the War Department and General Ulysses S. Grant. In 1868 he became the editor and part-owner of the New York Sun. He at first ...

McClellan, George B. (George Brinton), 1826-1885

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6fs0m24 (person)

George Brinton McClellan (December 3, 1826 – October 29, 1885) was an American soldier, civil engineer, railroad executive, and politician who served as the 24th Governor of New Jersey. A graduate of West Point, McClellan served with distinction during the Mexican–American War (1846–1848), and later left the Army to work on railroads until the outbreak of the American Civil War (1861–1865). Early in the conflict, McClellan was appointed to the rank of major general and played an important role i...

Halleck, Henry Wager, 1815-1872

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6rw1c3w (person)

Halleck was born on a farm in Westernville, Oneida County, New York, third child of 14 of Joseph Halleck, a lieutenant who served in the War of 1812, and Catherine Wager Halleck. Young Henry detested the thought of an agricultural life and ran away from home at an early age to be raised by an uncle, David Wager of Utica. He attended Hudson Academy and Union College, then the United States Military Academy. He became a favorite of military theorist Dennis Hart Mahan and was allowed to teach class...

Sherman, William T. (William Tecumseh), 1820-1891

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6ck93n8 (person)

Sherman was born in 1820 in Lancaster, Ohio, near the banks of the Hocking River. His father, Charles Robert Sherman, a successful lawyer who sat on the Ohio Supreme Court, died unexpectedly in 1829. He left his widow, Mary Hoyt Sherman, with eleven children and no inheritance. After his father's death, the nine-year-old Sherman was raised by a Lancaster neighbor and family friend, attorney Thomas Ewing, Sr., a prominent member of the Whig Party who served as senator from Ohio and as the first S...

United States. Army of the Potomac

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6xm2937 (corporateBody)

The Army of the Potomac was created after the defeat of Union forces at the First Battle of Bull Run. Its objective was to defend Washington, D.C. by protecting the Potomac River entry into the city. The Army of the Potomac participated in the Peninsula Campaign, the Seven Days' Battles, Antietam, Gettysburg and Appomatox. Its commanders (in order of service) were McClellan, Halleck, Burnside, Hooker, Meade, and Grant. From the description of General orders, ...

Scott, Thomas Alexander, 1823-1881

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6251zkr (person)

United States. War Department

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6mp8swh (corporateBody)

Marcy served as Secretary of War under James K. Polk, 1845-1849. From the description of William L. Marcy letter : Washington [D.C.], to Col. J.D. Stevenson, New York City, ALS, 1846 June 26. (University of California, Berkeley). WorldCat record id: 43771263 Officer, Second U.S. Cavalry, 1868-1892. From the description of Report of Lieutenant Gustavus C. Doane, 1870 Dec.15. (Montana State University Bozeman Library). WorldCat record id: 43955079 U.S. gov...

Western Union Telegraph Company

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6jx27mt (corporateBody)

The bark Golden Gate and clipper ship Nightingale were both involved in the Western Union Telegraph Expedition to British Columbia, Alaska and Russia to survey areas where the Western Union Telegraph Company planned to construct a telegraph line linking America and Europe. The line was never completed. Charles S. Bulkley was Engineer-in-Chief and Charles M. Scammon was Chief of Marine. The bark Golden Gate was the flagship of the expedition from June 1865 to March 1866, after which the clipper s...

United States Military Telegraph

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6h2060n (corporateBody)

Pinkerton, Allan, 1819-1884

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6jw955g (person)

Stanton, Edwin McMasters, 1814-1869

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6959grd (person)

American jurist and politician. From the description of Letter signed : "War Department," to William Pitt Fessenden, 1862 May 19. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 270580939 U.S. secretary of war 1862-1868. From the description of Telegram (draft) : ms. : Washington, D.C., to Ulysses S. Grant, Appomattox C.H., Va., 1865 Apr. 9. (Rosenbach Museum & Library). WorldCat record id: 122380613 Secretary of War; Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. ...

Eckert, Thomas Thompson, 1825-1910

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6b288hp (person)

Chief of the War Dept. Telegraph Office, 1862. Sucessively General Manager, President, and Chariman of the Board of Western Union. From the description of Thomas T. Eckert letter to S. S. McClure [manuscript], 1892 Sep 13. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 174964728 Eckert served as head of military telegraph headquarters in the United States War Department during the Civil War. From the description of Diary, 1865. (Auburn University). WorldCat record...

Stager, Anson, 1825-1885

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6v69hbr (person)

He was born in Ontario County, New York. At age sixteen, Stager began working as an apprentice on the Rochester Daily Advertiser for a printer and telegraph builder named Henry O'Reilly of Rochester, New York. After the latter had a telegraph line constructed from Philadelphia to Harrisburg he placed Stager in operator positions in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and then at age 21 he was put in charge of the first Lancaster, Pennsylvania, office in 1846. In the spring of 1848, he was made chief op...

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6tz44c1 (person)

Abraham Lincoln (born February 12, 1809, Sinking Spring Farm near Hodgenville, Kentucky-died April 15, 1865, Washington, D.C.) was the sixteenth President of the United States from 1861 until his death by assassination. He was the son of a Kentucky frontiersman, Thomas Lincoln, and Nancy Hanks. In 1816, Lincoln moved to Pigeon Creek, Indiana, where he worked on his family's farm. Following his mother's death two years later, he continued working on farms until moving with his father to New Sa...